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Cite thesis and conference papers in MLA

Learn how to cite theses and conference papers in MLA style. Follow correct formats for online, unpublished and presented academic sources to reference sources accurately in your writing.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format Example
Paraphrasing According to David Ryan monitoring crowds at an open-air concert can be … (23).
Direct quote “Open air concerts are notoriously difficult to monitor eve with technological assistance” (Ryan 23).

Works cited

A thesis is considered published if:

  • the thesis is bound and available to be publicly consulted
  • the full text of the thesis can be accessed on a database such as ProQuest or EThOS.

MLA does not distinguish between published and unpublished dissertations.

Online

Reference format Example
Template Author. Title of Thesis. Description. Year. Granting university, description. Website/Database, URL.
Works cited entry

Ryan, David Andrew. Crowd Monitoring Using Computer Vision.  2013.  Queensland U of Technology, PhD thesis. QUT ePrints, eprints.qut.edu.au/65652/1/David_Ryan_Thesis.pdf.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format Example
Paraphrasing Topaçoğlu asserts that often books and plays are made into films for several reasons including …(1).
Direct quote “Shakespeare wrote his plays to be staged” (Topaçoğlu 1).

Works cited

A thesis is considered published if:

  • the thesis is bound and available to be publicly consulted
  • the full text of the thesis can be accessed on a database such as ProQuest or EThOS.

MLA does not distinguish between published and unpublished dissertations.

Reference format Example
Template Author. Title of Thesis. Description. Year. Granting university, description. Website/Database, URL.
Works cited entry

Topaçoğlu, Ahmet. Adaptation as a Form of Translation: Patterns of Changes in Adapting Shakespeare's Macbeth from Stage to Screen. 2019. Dokuz Eylul Universitesi, Master’s thesis. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/adaptation-as-form-translation-patterns-changes/docview/2925388354/se-2.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format Example
Paraphrasing Dysfunctional driving behaviours can be an enormous issue … (Reid 15).
Direct quote "Dysfunctional driving behaviours can lead to … " (Reid 65).

Works cited

MLA does not distinguish between published and unpublished dissertations. If the thesis is bound and available to be publicly consulted, it is considered published.

Reference format Example
Template Author. Title of Thesis. Year. Granting university, description. 
Works cited entry

Reid, John Maxwell. A Cognitive Study of Dysfunctional Driving Behaviours. 1998. U of Melbourne, Doctoral thesis.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format Example
Paraphrasing Linguistic focus can be defined as … (de Blas Hernandez 1).
Direct quote According to da Blas “literature curriculums are best reviewed with a linguistic focus to avoid …” (2).

Works cited

Add description (e.g. Keynote Address, Speech, Lecture or Presentation) after the location.

Reference format Example
Template Presenter. “Title of Paper.” Conference name, Day Month Year, Location. Description.
Works cited entry

de Blas Hernandez, Sara, et al. "Challenges and Opportunities of Enhancing the Literature Curriculum Through a Linguistic Focus." Modern Language Association (MLA) 2024 Annual Convention, 4-7 Jan. 2024, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia. Conference presentation.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format Example
Paraphrasing

Self-management of metacognitive behaviour is often considered in computer programmes in recent times (Carnone et al. 533).

According to Zhang et. al. the use of metaphor can stimulate more creativity in student writing assessments (1204).
Direct quote

According to C. Murphy leadership in job design is becoming more important … (2).

“The English language has a global spread, and it is one of the most important and widely spoken international languages today” (Zhang et. al. 1198).

Works cited

  • Treat like a book chapter from an edited collection. Give the author(s) of the paper, the title of paper in quotation marks (" "), title and editor of proceedings, publication information, and page range.
  • For proceedings accessed online, include website/database and DOI/URL.

Paper in proceedings

Reference format Example
Template Author. “Title of Paper.” Proceedings of Name of Conference, edited by name, Publisher, Year, page range of paper. Website/Database, doi/URL.
Works cited entry

Carbone, Angela et al. “Designing Programming Tasks to Elicit Self-Management Metacognitive Behaviour.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education. Edited by B. Werner. Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society, 2002. pp. 533-34. IEEE Xplore., doi:10.1109/CIE.2002.1185998.

Hualde, José Ignacio. “Patterns of Correspondence in the Adaptation of Spanish Borrowings in Basque.” Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena, edited by Steven S. Chang et al., Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2000, pp. 348-58.   

Murphy, C. “Job Design and Leadership.” Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the International Employment Relations Association. Ed. Gordon Stewart and​ Paul Hyland. Rockhampton: CQU, 2004. 1–13.

Zhang, Dongyu, et. al. “Expressing Metaphorically, Writing Creatively: Metaphor Identification for Creativity Assessment.” Proceedings of the WWW ’22 Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022, edited by Frederick Laforest, Raphael Troncy, Lionel Medini, and Ivan Herman, Association for Computing Machinery, 2022, pp. 1198-1205. ACM Digital Library, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3487553.3524935.

Whole proceedings

If using the whole proceedings as a source, treat it like a book (e.g. edited collection).

Reference format Example
Template Editor/s. Title of Proceedings. Institution, Year.
Works cited entry

Chang, Steve S., et al., editors. Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena. Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2000.